Holiday Advent Calendar days 1-9

So  I know it's December 9th already and I swore to myself I would post this on the 30th of last month, but well...turns out I didn't get around to it.  So here is what we did for the first 9 days of December:

December 1st- Make a New Advent Calendar.  We actually hadn't ever made one. I was picking up those little cardboard ones every year, you kno w the ones with chocolate behind each day. But it with the kiddos getting older it was getting harder to have only one child open the little door for the day and then who would get the candy?  So this year I went to the craft store an bourght some holiday fabric in the clearance isle and some fat quarters that matched it. I pulled them out on the 1st along with a hot glue gun, 3 pairs of scissors and some glitter glue pens.  I explained to the kiddos that we needed to have something with pockets or doors and 25 of them (one for every day of the advent calendar).  What happened next was pure magic.  The kids set to work on their design, all working together. They got great tracing and cutting practice. I help the older two use the hot glue gun under supervision and watched as our calendar started to take shape.


December 2nd- Decorate House

December 3rd- Read a Holiday Book- Llama, Llama Holiday Drama- My kids love this cute story that helps with rhyming skills. It has been something we have read every year since I bought it.
December 4th- 1st Cocoa of the Season- We have a make it your own way cocoa bar, where the kids can add marshmellows, caramel, chocolate shavings, whip cream, cookie pieces, candy pieces and/or candy cane pieces to their cocoa.
December 5th- Giving Tree- Pick out names and go shopping -This is something we try to do every year from different trees. This year though we sadly had to limit it to only one tree instead of 2 or 3.
December 6th- Visit Family
December 7th- Holiday Work Party
December 8th-  Pick Up a Tree
December 9th- Hand and Foot Print Reindeers - These seem to be all over pinterest lately, but in case you haven't seen them, here is how we made ours. You will need brown paint for hand and foot prints. Red paint for noses and a different color for the eyes.  Start by placing hand or foot in the paint (or we used paint brushes to paint the palm of one hand). The make your print on the paper you plan on using. Once dry or dry-ish, you can use a paintbrush to add the red nose, paint on antlers and add eyes. Then the rest of the paper can be decorated or left blank, depending on the project. For a framed piece for a gift, it might be best to leave the rest of the space white for a clean look, like the one above. We just did ours for fun and as decorations for the house, so I let the kiddos go to town.

We only used paint for ours, but you could easily use twigs or pipe cleaners as antlers. Googly eyes could be used instead of painted ones also.